Sen. Mary Landrieu resists pressure to release hold on appointment (Jacob Lew)

[sabra]

Source: NOLA

With Congress heading toward the exits for the election recess, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., maintained her hold Tuesday on the appointment of a key administration official until the Obama administration lifts its drilling moratorium, which Sen. David Vitter, R-La., predicted could happen next month.

Vitter's forecast -- tempered by his concern that even without the moratorium, new regulations will stall a quick return to drilling -- followed an afternoon meeting he and Landrieu had with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

"I pushed Secretary Salazar and Director Bromwich in the meeting today to end the moratorium and establish realistic workable rules for producers to move forward, and it appears that the moratorium could be lifted next month," Vitter said.

Earlier in the day, after testifying before a hearing of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, Landrieu acknowledged she was getting considerable "pushback" from the Senate leadership to release her hold on the appointment of Jacob Lew to head the Office of Management and Budget.

But Landrieu, who had already had one meeting with Bromwich Tuesday morning, said, despite some "slight progress" on the moratorium, she was not ready to relent. Bromwich delivers his recommendations to Salazar this week on the moratorium, and whether to lift it before it is set to expire at the end of November.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/09/sen_mary_landrieu_resists_pres.html

[marmar]

1. Her corporate sponsors have told her exactly what to do.

nt

[saigon68]

18. Disgusting Boot Lick

A hand Maiden of Big Oil and her "Masters"

[Nite Owl]

2. Is the White House going to start

calling her names now too?
That I'd like to hear, but not holding my breath.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. That'd be something to hear, eh?

[Tippy]

3. K&R.........Big Corporations win again......

Sen. Mary Landrieu if wrong to maintained her hold Tuesday on the appointment of a key administration official until the Obama administration lifts its drilling moratorium. She is not helping the people from her state on bit by doing this. I watch another program last night on the BP Oil Spill, Either she is terribly misguided it remains clear to me the people of LA need help not just to get back to work but also they need to have safty precautions in place so this dosen't happen again. More and more people in the Gulf are becoming ill because of this spill. To hold up the appointment of Jacob Lew makes no sense to me, I wonder if it makes since to anyone in LA.

[struggle4progress]

5. WTF does OMB have to do with drilling in the Gulf, Mary?

[KoKo]

6. Bernie Sanders is also against the Lew appointment...

Shahien Nasiripour
[e-mail] | HuffPost Reporting


Bernie Sanders To Vote Against Top Obama Nominee, Citing Ties To 'Failed Policies'
First Posted: 09-22-10 06:10 PM | Updated: 09-22-10 06:20 P


A liberal senator plans to vote against confirming President Barack Obama's nominee for a top White House economic position.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who works closely with Democrats, said in a statement obtained by The Huffington Post that he won't vote to confirm Jacob "Jack" Lew, Obama's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget because, after meeting with Lew, the senator "found too many echoes of the failed policies of the past in his responses to my questions on trade policy, Social Security, deregulation of banks and other issues."

"It is my strong belief that President Obama needs an OMB director who is willing to stand up to corporate America and the wealthy, say enough is enough, and fight for policies that protect the working class in this country," Sanders said in a statement. "Unfortunately, I do not believe Mr. Lew is the right man at this time for this important job."

During a confirmation hearing last week, Lew told the Senate Budget Committee that he didn't believe that deregulation led to the recent financial crisis. Lew, who if confirmed will be returning to a post he held during the last few years of the Clinton administration, served during an era that saw the deregulation of Wall Street in the form of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

The two pieces of legislation repealed the law that long kept commercial banks from offering products or engaging in services more common to investment banks and eliminated virtually all regulation over the kind of derivatives that worsened the financial crisis.

Experts and policymakers, including U.S. Senators, commissioners at the Securities and Exchange Commission, top leaders in Congress, former financial regulators, Democratic Party organizations and even Obama himself have pointed to the deregulatory zeal of the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations as a major cause of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

But during his testimony, Lew didn't appear to agree, putting him at odds with an administration and a party that touts its efforts at re-regulating Wall Street in pitches to voters and cast blame for the crisis in part on the deregulatory policies pursued by Bush and his fellow Republicans in Congress.
Story continues below

[marmar]

9. But for a vastly different reason.....

nt

[KoKo]

11. True.......but folks can be FOR or AGAINST a piece of Legisation...for differening reasons?

No? ;shrug:

[SoapBox]

7. Another DINO...she and her ilk make me sick.

[Roland99]

8. Well, not like Jacob Lew is a great person for that spot.

He headed up Citigroup's Alternative Investment Unit right before the big collapse.

[ladjf]

10. Landrieu is bought and paid for by the oil industry. No one else

will be able to influence her in any way.nt

[pitohui]

12. she represents us and almost everyone in louisiana supports lifting the moratorium

in fact i'm not sure i've met more than one human being in the state of louisiana since this all began who isn't in favor of lifting the moratorium

democrat or GOP, we have a valuable product that our country needs -- i would say 99 out of 100 of us (including myself) support the exploration, drilling, and refining of oil

it's mary's job to support the people of this state and we OVERWHELMINGLY want to drill, so...i don't see what she's doing wrong...

nothing against obama, he has to play to a national market, and i'm impressed at what a job he's done of balancing the bullshit, but mary has to do this...


obama reps 50 states, and apparently 49 of them would rather we drill for oil in some foreign land...mary reps 1 state and we are willing to drill and to support this country and put our own lives/futures on the line to keep the energy flowing

neither is wrong, it's the battle of good against good

it's his job to rep the many and mary's job to rep the many of OUR state...

as for me, i believe it is good and right to drill for oil here ... it is my opinion, and it is the opinion of virtually everyone in this state ... and that's all i can say

we really want to contribute something real and valuable to our country, we are not interested in being dependents

[G_j]

13. Democratic senator blocks Obama budget chief pick

Source: Reuters

Democratic senator blocks Obama budget chief pick

Wed Sep 29, 8:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's pick for budget chief has been blocked in the U.S. Senate by a member of his own party to protest the administration's ban on offshore oil drilling.

The action by Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, means the Senate will not be able to approve Jack Lew as White House budget chief until at least mid-November, when it returns from a six-week break.

Obama could temporarily appoint Lew to head the Office of Management and Budget while the Senate is out of town, which would help the administration as it tries to work out a budget for the fiscal year that starts October 1, 2011.

Lew, who also headed the office under President Bill Clinton, would require Senate approval to remain on the job beyond January 2012.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100930/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_budget

[rpannier]

14. Mary Landrieu

(D?-LA) or ($-LA) after her name

[earcandle]

15. That is okay for now. Get him in there to set things up.

[slay]

16. Title should read Republican senator posing as a Dem

everyone knows it and it's Obama's own fault for supporting Dems like her and Blanche Lincoln.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. Even Bernie Sanders doesn't like Lew...

should tell you something.